


XVII

by Hieiandshino



Category: One Piece
Genre: Falling In Love, Gen, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Poetry, M/M, ZoSan is only mentioned, kind of, law is at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 15:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12038832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hieiandshino/pseuds/Hieiandshino
Summary: Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.(Unrevised work)





	XVII

**Author's Note:**

> _One Piece_ does not belong to me.
> 
> Title comes from Pablo Neruda's sonnet XVII.
> 
> This is an unrevised work, so I'm sorry for my mistakes.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

It's not hard to remember beautiful sentences from old books, sentences that almost make no sense. Law read few books on poetry and prose, yes, but they stick to him just like the memories of his dead family does: deep down, almost buried, just to come back when he least expects, just to keep him awake and in wonder and in grief.

Poetry comes to him as he stares at Eustass Kid.

There are poems about red so bright it reminds the lyrical I of blood. _I'm way too drunk_ , Law thinks, even though he doesn't remember drinking that day.

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

They always talk about perfect men, capable of putting broken things - women - together. How they are caring and how they are lonely.

Eustass Kid is not like them. He is not the perfect man, the one that devotes his life to the people he loves. He is selfish and sadistic, chaotic and deadly.

Law loves him for it.

(No _, you think._ No, it's not love. _Love is a strong word that men like you do not use. Love is too much, means too much for you. You’re no poet and because of that you do not use the word lightly. It’s a word to be used only to people that you lost. Love is foreign to you now, has been for a long time. But it fell from your lips so easily_ )

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

Epic poetry always tells people what a captain must be. When he was younger and had other dreams, Law thought these captains were lies. Honorable and kind and loyal to their crew - and that was enough for men to follow them to their deaths.

Then, he became a pirate and understood.

This is why he respects Kid more than he respect other supernovas ( _with the exception of Luffy_ ): he doesn't act like a captain. But he is, he is, because no man would follow another irresponsibly. No man would die for another if not for a good reason. Eustass Kid is terrifying and evil, but not with his nakama. Law knows this better than he knows himself.

He stares at Kid's poster and wonders who he truly is for the people he loves. Who he is when he is not a nightmare.

Even in chaos there is order. Even in fear, there is courage.

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

Kid's metallic arm is grotesque. Bigger than his other hand, asymmetrical in a way only Kid would've wanted to be. He is already tall and strong, massive, really, but he wants to be a giant. A monster. Something more than human.

Law is not impressed. There is nothing useful in not being human, in not having real flash with veins and blood. He is a doctor because he loves life. It is simple.

However, Kid is no doctor. He is a mechanic. He likes to build things with metal. He is steel, has always been - and in Law's mind, he cannot bear to think there was a time in which Kid was quicksilver, not hard but liquid metal - and always will be. His new arm is just a part of him that was hidden underneath his flesh, his blood and his bones.

( _And you wonder how it would feel to be touched by that arm, to be stretched open by a machine, only to be fucked by a man_ )

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

In the dark of his submarine where sunlight does not reach even Kid's pale skin cannot glow. But it's warm, it's so warm, as if Law is soaking in the sun. Law’s hands touch his back, memorize his skin. Kid only grunts, pleased by the soft touches, and tries to sleep.

In darkness Law too is blind and the scars he feels are the only language he knows. Braille. In each one there is a story, an epic poem, but also a tragic one. Too many 'ifs' inside their victorious rhymes.

Law is a doctor and he sees probabilities at each new scar he discovers in darkness. Tragic poems are all he has in his mind, together with medical information. One centimeter to the left and Kid would have died - _Choice_ , by Angela Morgan, comes to his mind. One centimeter and this shared night would never have happened.

He dreads the day when a tragic poem comes to his mind as he thinks of Kid and represents his grief.

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

He knows what love is too. He is this way because he loved, because he loves, because he will love. Love and lose. It's a cycle and as a pirate, nobody expects beautiful, hopeful endings.

Still, he wonders. What would be to love someone again, let this person inside his body, inside his heart, inside his dreams. Every time he sees Luffy and his crew, he wants to ask the swordsman about this.

Roronoa Zoro has always been too much like him. Blackleg Sanji is something else entirely, always feeling too much, not caring if he shows the world his heart. Just. Like. Kid.

Yet, Roronoa Zoro is not afraid and instead of pushing Blackleg out, he pulls him in. There may be death, there may be tragedy, there may be regret, but he still feels and shows it to the world.

Law is afraid the answer will be simple.

Law is afraid the answer will be one he already has.

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

Devotion is so romanticized that he almost doesn't recognize it when he feels it. They always say it is a feeling of true trust, true love, love that transcends everything, even the need to be loved back.

Devotion, he realizes, involves fear and dread and rage. It makes you blind for revenge, for the truth. It's devotion that he has always felt for those he loved and avenged, but only now he understands.

Eustass Kid is missing.

Law navigates this ocean full of ruins and wonders for him. If he is alive, he'll save him. If he is dead, he'll avenge him, turn his heart into stone and never let anyone else inside.

Kid lives inside Law now, together with all his mistakes and all the people he could not save. He is a tattoo that isn't on his skin or on his heart.

It's somewhere deeper.

Between the shadow and the soul.

.

Law is no poet, but he knows poetry.

He knows a thousand ways to say "I love you". Most of them are not his words. He likes simples phrases instead of metaphorical ones. Law likes information and graphics and probabilities. He loves cures and diseases and treatment.

With Eustass Kid on his bed, looking worse for wear, but _alive_ , all Law can think is that he wants to brand the man on his skin in a way the hearts tattooed there cannot represent, could never represent. In a way Law could not do with his family or with Corazón. In a way only heated metal does, as it burns the skin completely and leave scars behind.

"I love you".

( _You laugh to yourself. Before you refused to say because it meant too much, and now it does not represent enough_ )

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know guys, I only know that I was very anxious last night, very sad and I was sure my PC screen broke. I wrote this on my cell phone, so please forgive any mistake I didn't find!
> 
> Two poems were used in this fanfic: Pablo Neruda's XVII (read, it's my favorite poem ever) and Angela Morgan's Choice, also beautiful.


End file.
